RSS Feed
Archive for October 17th, 2013
Water, hygiene and sanitation: does business have a role to play?
Posted by Guardian: Oliver Balch on October 17th, 2013
Guardian: No-one needs to explain to the rural residents of Zambia's Western Province the value of water. They know all too well. Two in three people lack safe water to drink in the region's villages, and even fewer have access to a clean toilet. So when Village Water Zambia arrived offering to provide wells, hand pumps and sanitation facilities, the charity was warmly received. Likewise, when US bank Bank of America Merrill Lynch stepped in and gifted the charity's UK arm more than £100,000 over two years,...
Posted in 
Spate of Australian wildfires destroys at least 30 homes
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on October 17th, 2013
Reuters: A spate of wildfires has destroyed at least 30 homes west of Sydney, prompting evacuations, blanketing Australia's biggest city in choking yellow smoke and closing highways. Fuelled by unseasonably high temperatures and strong winds, dozens of fires were burning in the Blue Mountains region and other parts of New South Wales state on Thursday, threatening more properties, the Rural Fire Service said. There were no immediate reports of deaths. "If we get through with less than 100 homes destroyed...
Stephen Harper ignores Canada’s First Nations at own peril: Walkom
Posted by Toronto Star: Thomas Walkom on October 17th, 2013
Toronto Star: Historically, the Canadian government has catered to aboriginals only when it needed them. It needs them now. Specifically, Prime Minister Stephen Harper needs First Nations on side if his government is to push through its ambitious resource development plans and reap the requisite political awards. British Columbia’s native communities have the capacity to tie up — perhaps indefinitely — Harper’s proposed oil pipeline to the Pacific Coast. They have promised to do just that. Mining development...
Kentucky creates climate post as EPA rules loom
Posted by Politico: Erica Martinson on October 17th, 2013
Politico: In Washington, Kentuckians are fighting on all fronts against President Barack Obama's climate change agenda, but back home, the state government is taking a different tack.
"You might be surprised that Kentucky has a person like me that's got a title like I have,' John Lyons, the assistant secretary, said at a recent climate change policy event in Washington. "But the one thing I want to pass along is we're not burying our heads in the sand, and we are coming to the table.'
On the other side...